The Michigan Daily--Friday, June 30, 1978-Page 7
Vietnam to trade in COMECON
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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)!-
Vietnam formally joined the Soviet-
led COMECON trading alliance
yesterday, a further Vietnamese shift
toward Moscow that is expected to
widen the split between Hanoi and
Peking.
Vietnam was admitted as the 10th
full member of COMECON - the
Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance - at the end of a three-day
meeting of the government chiefs of
council nations.
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
called Vietnam's admission a "great
event" that would aid in the develop-
ment of the entire "socialist com-
munity."
Relations between Vietnam and
China, its giant Communist neighbor
to the north, have deteriorated shar-
ply in recent months because of
alleged mistreatment of Chinese
residents in Vietnam and China's
support for Cambodia in the Viet-
namese-Cambodian border conflict.
PEKING, WHICH also has denoun-
ced Vietnam's close alliance with
Moscow, recently withdrew substan-
tial economic aid from Hanoi.
During the Indochina War, won by
the Communists in 1975, Hanoi tried to
maintain a neutral position between
China and the Soviets and received
aid from both feuding Communist
powers.
Vietnamese Deputy Premier Le
Than Nghi had applied Wednesday for
full COMECON membership for his
nation, which previously had only ob-
server status. East European sources
at the meeting said the application
was unexpected.
Besides the Soviet Union, the other
COMECON members are Romania,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Poland, East Germany, Mongolia and
Ruba.
THE ORGANIZATION, similar to
Western Europe's Common Market,
is devoted to improving trade
relations and other economic ties
among its members, and has carried
out such joint projects as the building
of an oil pipeline and an electricity
network, and formation of a steel
trust.
East European sources here said
COMECON could help Vietnam's war-
battered and underdeveloped
economy. But Western observers say
Vietnam, like Mongolia and Cuba,
may prove to be a burden on the more
industrially developed East European
countries.
In a related development yester-
day, in the Philippine capital of
Manila, the Asian Development Bank,
over U.S. objections, restored finan-
cing to a power project in Vietnam
that was suspended shortly before the
American-backed Saigon government
fell in 1975.
IN HONG KONG, meanwhile, a
delegation of U.S. businessmen who
ended a trip to Vietnam earlier this
week said the Hanoi government is
eager to begin trade with the United
States if Washington lifts the current
economic embargo against Vietnam.
The Vietnamese believe that
American technology and experience
in Southeast Asia could help their
national reconstruction better and
faster than trade with Europeans, the
businessmen said.
Vietnam-Can
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)-Vietnam, denying
its forces had launched a large-scale invasion of
Camboidia, said yesterday that Cambodian troops
had made new forays across the border in the past
few days and several hundred were killed in
fighting with Vietnames defenders.
Western and other spurces continue to maintain,
however, that Hanoi's troops were engaged in step-
ped-up military activity inside Cambodia as well.
A Vocie of Vietnam broadcast monitored here
said the Cambodians, "committing crimes against
rtbodia conflict escalating
the Vietnames people," had penetrated as far as six tivity in Cambodia, although there were differing
miles into southern Vietnam in the latest attacks assessments about the scale of reported fighting
and still held areas by Tay Ninh, An Giang and Kien between the one-time Communist allies. Diplomatic
Giang provinces. betwees he oet e 7omun-t a igio.
BESIDES INFLICTING heavy losses, the broad- sources here doubted the 70,000-to-80,000 figure.
cast said, the Vietnames troops took many U.S. INTELLIGENCE sources in Washington had
prisoners and caputred a large number of weapons. said Wednesday that artilery-warplane-backed
The official radio broadcast said Western and Vietnames troops pushed up to 37 miles into Cam-
Asian news reports of an invasion of 70,000 to 80,000 boida. The analysts said they believed the Viet-
Vietnames troops were "fabricated." names operations were aimed at wiping out base
But sources in Washington and Bangkok said camps used by Cambodian soliders to infiltrate
Vietnam recently had increased its military ac- Vietnam.
Bombing linked to Mondale visit
JERUSALEM (AP) - A powerful Mondale is scheduled to arrive in Tel exploded there, killing 12 Israelis and
explosion ripped through a crowded Aviv at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. EDT) wounding more than 50.
open-air market in the Jewish section of Friday for a four-day visit. He is to Yesterday's blast was the 14th of the
Jerusalem yesterday, just one day meet with Prime Minister Menachem year in Jerusalem, raising the toll for
before the scheduled arrival in Israel of Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe 1978 to 11 dead and more than 120 woun-
Vice President Walter Mondale. Two Dayan to review political problems in- ded. The worst incidents of the year oc-
persons were killed and 47 wounded, of- volved in resuming Israeli-Egyptian curred Feb. 15, when an explosion
ficials said. peace talks. aboard a bus killed two and wounded 48,
The Palestine Liberation Organiza- and June 2, when another bus bombing
tion (PLO) claimed responsibility for killed six and wounded 20.
the mid-morning blast that blew apart a
vegetable stand at the Mahane Yehuda
market as Israelis were doing their pre-
Sabbath shopping.
A small concrete building was
destroyed and several adjacent stores
and sidewalk carts were damaged.
"AN UNDERGROUND squad acting
inside occupied Palestine planted the
heavy explosive, charge in the Mahane .01
Yehuda vegetable market in Jerusalem .
Wednesday morning," a PLO - ,!"/ F
spokesman said in Beirut. He said the Monda IDAY
squad "returned safely to its base in- The market is located in West / 2-5
side occupied territory despite the Jerusalem near the busy Jaffa Road %!'
enemy a security dragnets. thoroughfare and less than a mile from I5C HO
The PLO spokesman said the attack the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. The,
"emphasizes the PLO's determination market is usually busiest on Thursdays
to escalate the armed struggle against as Jewish residents stock up for the
our Zionist enemy from within." Sabbath beginningat sundown Friday.
JERUSAnEM MAYOR Teddy Mahane Yehuda was the scene of Tuesday
Kollek, who visited the market after the another bloody terrorist attack nearly , 8 Half Pri
explosion, said he thought the terrorist 10 years ago. On Nov. 22, 1968, a parked
attack was linked to Mondale's visit. car packed with powerful explosives 7
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